Author's Note: Original sequel to Feathered Nakama! I hope you like! This chapter's more a flashback for those of you who don't feel like reading Feathered Nakama. Next chapter is where stuff starts happening for real!
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, but I own the storyline and Hoshi and her moves.
Chapter One: Banana?
Hoshi sat in the crow's nest, dozing as she kept one eye cracked open to view the horizon. The events of the past couple days kept playing in her mind over and over…
Flashback
"Sorry for causing you trouble!" she cried, bowing her head to her knees.
Luffy… what else… laughed. "Don't worry about it!" he told her warmly. "Are you with the government or something?"
Dead silence. The girl's eyes widened, and she started to tremble.
"Hey, did I guess right? Hello? Are you alrig-"
"Do you know how much pain the World Government has caused in my life?" she asked softly. Robin, not really reading but listening in, was startled. Those were the words that she had yelled to a Marine not too long ago, in Arabasta.
There was an awkward silence for several seconds, before Luffy decided to break it… as always, without thinking.
"So… which Devil's Fruit did you eat?" he asked the girl.
At this, the girl was startled out of her anger. "A Devil's Fruit?" she asked. "What's a Devil's Fruit?"
Zoro stared at the girl. He had never seen someone before who had not at least heard of the legendary Devil's Fruits… What sort of background did this girl have?
Luffy laughed. "You're an interesting person!" he informed the girl. "What's your name?
The girl looked more startled than ever. "Name?"
"Yeah, what's your name?" Luffy asked again. "You know, what people call you."
"Umm… my name… I'm not really sure… I think it would be Experiment 413."
"OH MY GOSH THAT IS SUCH A COOL NAME 'EXPERIMENT 413', WHERE'D YOU GET IT? IT'S AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!! YOU HAVE SUCH A COOL NAME…"
"'Experiment 413'? What sort of a name is that?" yelled Zoro over the captain's ranting.
"It's what they used to call me back where I come from! Is that what a 'name' would be?" …er… Experiment 413 said loudly.
"A name is a word that people know you by," explained Zoro, quickly speaking in a regular volume as Luffy stopped for breath.
"Who are you people anyways?" Experiment 413 demanded.
"Well… I'm Roranora Zoro…" said Zoro uncertainly.
"I'm Monkey D Luffy! The man who will become the pirate king!"
"Pirate King? Wow, that's a high goal… to stand on top of this Pirate Age…" Experiment 413 murmured, looking Luffy over, taking in the red vest, rolled-up blue jeans, straw hat, and overall gangly figure. "You don't really look the type."
Luffy laughed. "I get that a lot."
"Why do you laugh so much?"
"Because there's no point in being sad… It feels bad."
"But can't you sometimes feel sad?"
"I never let it bother me for too long. Why wouldn't you want to laugh?"
"…"
"Anyhow," Zoro cut in, "we should let the rest of the crew know that you're awake."
"Wait! We have to give her a different name!" yelled Luffy.
"What? Why?" asked Zoro.
"I won't let our new nakama be named 'Experiment 413'!!"
"What?!"
"No one's allowed to have a name cooler than mine!!"
"WHAT?!?!?"
"Alright, time for a crew meeting!" yelled Luffy.
"Since when do we have crew meetings?" demanded Usopp.
"Since now."
"ALRIGHT EVERYONE, GATHER AROUND CAPTAIN USOPP'S BARREL FOR THE FIRST OFFICIAL AND LONG OVERDUE CREW MEETING!" screamed Usopp, jumping on top of a barrel standing next to the mast.
"Okay, to order," said Luffy, stretching out an arm and pushing Usopp off the barrel before jumping on himself. The rest of the crew got sweatdrops (since when did the word 'order' ever come out of Luffy's mouth?), but nevertheless stood around the barrel.
"EXPERIMENT 413!!" yelled Luffy, startling her out of that train of thought. "COME HERE!! IT'S TIME TO DECIDE YOUR NEW NAME!!"
A new name… could that actually be real? Could the crazy captain actually be serious? She had caught herself wondering more than once why the other… not quite sane people would decide to follow the Straw Hat, who was the insanest of them all.
"Okay, my submission is Niku-oneechan!!" Luffy put in, to an overall rejection (a rejection that was so loud, it blew him off the barrel). That was a real relief. Experiment 413 wasn't really sure what she would want her new name to be, but she was sure she wouldn't want to go through what was left of her life with the name 'Meat Lady'.
"Alright, the great Usopp-sama has decided…" Usopp mused, stroking an imaginary beard, then he got an inspiration and pointed at her dramatically, "You will be Pachinko no Hitatsu!" This name too, was greeted with complete rejection, another relief to Experiment 413. She didn't want to go through life with the name 'Pinball of Certain Death' either. Usopp crumpled into a fetal position and faced the wall.
"Your new name is Mikan! It's perfect for you!" Nami exclaimed. That name was also rejected, and Nami reduced herself to a desolate heap by the wall next to Usopp. That was another relief… 'Tangerine' didn't really seem like a good name.
Different names and such were argued and rejected… names not limited to common sense. Suggested names were 'Kane-kane onechan', a Nami suggestion meaning 'money-money lady', 'Number-One Beauty', a Sanji contribution. Other names ranged from 'Hitatsu Wagome' or 'sure-death rubber band', Usopp's idea of a great name being skewed anyways, to 'Niku-niku Puncher', another Luffy-idea.
"Akahoshi," came the unexpected suggestion from Robin, as the names got wilder and wilder (to a point where it would be pointless to list them all). This name was considered, and having a name that meant 'red star' seemed to be nice, not like the absurd names formerly suggested. "Or maybe just 'Hoshi'," she revised, looking up towards the starry skies arching overhead. Everyone murmured in agreement, and even Nami righted herself from her fetal position to approve the name. Then everyone looked in Experiment 413's direction to see if she would accept or not.
Hoshi looked around at the crew. They were all smiling reassuringly at her… and she was getting uncomfortable, being the center of this sort of attention. Thinking it over, she saw no reason not to accept the name… these were good people. And amazingly, they treated her and they cared about her as a real nakama, a real human, even though she had been with them for barely any time at all. Things could be different with a new name, different from the past. She would never find out if she didn't accept now… Experiment 413 nodded shyly, and the crew burst into laughter.
"ALRIGHT!! It's settled then! Everyone!! Experiment 413 is no longer Experiment 413, but now her name is HOSHI!!" yelled Luffy, apparently having completely forgotten his depression at his suggestions having been completely turned down. The crew approved the new name with enthusiastic shouts and a badly made firework from Usopp.
"Okay, now that you have a new name, you can be our nakama!" shouted Luffy over the general clamor.
"What?" The surprised cry rang over the shouts, and silence descended. Experiment 413 was starting to breathe heavily, and was staring at Luffy with mixed emotion. Zoro watched carefully. The girl seemed to be feeling an utterly complex mix of emotion, sadness, pain, rejection, and hope, just to name a few.
"I said I want you to be our nakama," Luffy said. He might be an idiot, but he wasn't an insensitive idiot. He could see that his offer was making a major impact on her.
"But why?" The cry that Hoshi gave out held more emotion than she had meant to come out. Nevertheless, she had to make these people understand that she could only stay here until her wing had healed, not as a nakama. She wanted too, so much. They were good people, if a little strange, and they had been kinder to her than anyone she had ever known. But…
"I have damn WINGS. I don't know what Devil's Fruit you were talking about earlier, but I didn't get my wings from it. World Government genetic scientists decided that they wanted to graft human DNA with avian DNA, and here I am, the multi-billion Beli result. What they didn't know was that I had a mind, they saw me as an animal. I'm considered a research specimen, not a person! There was a time where I couldn't take it anymore, and I escaped. The government is after their precious experiment, and they'll stop at nothing to get me back! I'm the 413th specimen… Experiment 413… the only successful try out of 500 specimens. I've been betrayed by people who I thought would protect me and help me. They gave up my location for money! Damn green bits of paper meant more to them than I did. You guys… how do I know you're not any different? How can I know that I'm not going to be hurt again!?!" By the end of Experiment 413's speech, she was nearly screaming.
Zoro saw the crease between her eyebrows deepen, and watched her eyes try to hold back the emotion she was feeling. He was a little unsure of what was going to happen next. He felt that he should do something to comfort Hoshi, but something was holding him back… ah well. Luffy was probably going to do something crazy again. Zoro had spotted THE LOOK in Luffy's eye.
What Luffy decided to say was this:
"Kampai for our new nakama, Hoshi!!" Luffy yelled. "Sanji!"
"Okay," said Sanji, a huge grin on his face. "Chopper."
"Oh, okay," Chopper responded. He followed Sanji.
They both disappeared into storage for two minutes, then came back up with eight ginormous cups and three bottles of wine. Sanji poured everyone some, and the cups were all picked up. Nami shoved a cup into the newly named Experiment 413's hand, and everyone slammed their cups together with a cheer as Hoshi looked with utter disbelief at the scene.
"KAMPAAAAAAAI!!"
Experiment 413, looking around, realized that for the first time in her life, she wasn't alone anymore. These people didn't care that she was a mutant, a freak of nature… they saw past that and glimpsed the person behind outer shell, had liked what they had seen, and made her one of their own. They had made her shed her old name and old way of life, old fears and old wounds, and helped her to start anew once again. Hoshi had one thought revolving in her mind… she wasn't alone anymore, she had friends, she had nakama who cared about her, nakama who would never sell her for any amount of green paper…
End Flashback
Hoshi was pulled out of her memories when she spotted a dark blob on the ocean, and she had no doubt as to what it was. Getting up, she stretched, then took a deep breath…
"HEY!! IT'S AN ISLAND!! WAKE UP EVERYONE! ISLAND!" Hoshi yelled from the crow's nest.
Luffy burst out the door in a flash. "An island!? Where?! Where?!"
"To the front!"
" HOW COOL!! IT HAS A MOUNTAIN SHAPED LIKE A BANANA!!"
Hoshi sweatdropped a little. True, the island had a mountain that looked like a crescent sticking out of it like a pair of bull's horns, but a banana…?
The rest of the crew came up, sleepily rubbing their eyes… except Zoro, who was still sleeping like a rock.
"A mountain shaped like that?" Nami yawned. "I can't imagine something like this forming naturally."
"It really does look like a banana if you look at it like this," Usopp said, tilting his head to one side.
"That's not the problem here!" Nami snapped, whacking the sharpshooter on the head.
"Ah! Nami-san! Robin-chan! Hoshi-chan! Breakfast!" Sanji sang.
Hoshi looked down at the crew from above and grinned. "Be right down!" she called. She scrambled down the rigging and jumped onto the deck with a thump. She started walking towards the kitchen when a pair of rubbery arms stretched past her.
"Ohooo!! Food food food!" Luffy sang as he shot past a wide-eyed Hoshi into the kitchen.
"GET THE HELL OUT OF THE KITCHEN!" Sanji roared, kicking Luffy back out as fast as he had come in. Luffy crashed into the still-sleeping Zoro, who immediately woke up.
"Oi, Luffy, what was that for?!" Zoro demanded, punching Luffy on the head.
"It wasn't my fault! Sanji did it!" Luffy argued, pointing at the open kitchen door.
Hoshi laughed. It wasn't too long ago that the aqua-eyed girl had fallen out of the sky onto this ship… and it was by an insane stroke of luck that by doing that, she now had a place to call home for the first time in her life, with a family to boot. They had defended her from the World Government scientists, and had allowed her to get revenge on the person who had caused the most pain in her life. Now, she was happy and free as anyone could ever hope to be with the craziest people on the face of the planet. No moment on this ship was a quiet moment, but honestly, that was just fine by her. With a new adventure ahead and her nakama all supporting her from behind, what could go wrong?